The present invention relates to a control method for dispensing medication and, in particular, to a medicine dispensing system which dispenses medication in specific doses.
It is well known in the health care industry that misuse of prescribed drugs is a serious problem for persons who are easily confused, have short memories or are physically or mentally handicapped. The misuse of prescribed drugs is particularly evident among senior citizens.
In the United States thousands of persons die each year from failure to take medication at prescribed times or in proper dosages, from failure to follow other instructions relating to the medication, or from complications of side effects or adverse interaction of medications or drugs accidently or carelessly presecribed for and administered to the same patient.
The health needs of the elderly and handicapped present an increasingly important problem in our society. The majority of elderly and handicapped patients are cared for by families, friends and community-based institutions, none of which are adequately prepared or equipped to control medication regimens.
Drug administration in the care of the elderly and handicapped must be properly controlled, and careful records kept, in order to ensure that prescribed medicine is in fact meeting the health needs of the patients and not instead doing them harm. Because of the complex drug regimens of many elderly persons and some handicapped persons, drugs are often used improperly because of a lack of supervision or because of the inability of the patients to adhere to a medication regimen. Sometimes it is the patient who is unable or unwilling to comply with the medication regimen, and sometimes it is the family member or care giver who cannot or will not help the patient to comply with the medication regimen.
Elderly persons, in particular, often have short memories and are easily confused and therefore cannot remember to take, or having taken, medication. This can result in overdosage or failure to take medication, leading to serious health complications and possibly even death.
Surveys taken by the assignee of this invention have developed a number of desires expressed by elderly persons. They want their medication dispensed in containers which are easy to open and which clearly identify the type and purpose of the medication in terms they can understand. In many instances, descriptions of medications are difficult to read and pronounce (they are often expressed in chemical and/or medical terminology unfamiliar to most lay persons). The containers for such medications are too often difficult to open, particularly by persons with physical limitations such as arthritic hands. Therefore, a system whereby medication is identified by a unique number would aid elderly and handicapped persons in understanding their medication needs and schedule, particularly where the person is taking multiple drugs, and a system which dispenses medications in easily opened containers would greatly aid persons with even minor physical limitations.
Families and visiting nurses who care for elderly or handicapped patients in the home also need the same or similar types of help in managing the patient's medication regimen. Additionally, administrators and staff members of community-based institutions need help in administering medication appropriately to residents and to prevent abuse of drugs by staff and residents. In community-based institutions and in some nursing homes, staff responsibility for medication is increasing and with that responsibility is increased liability on the part of the staff.
In family homes, group homes and foster homes, there is a continuing problem of control of medication for a plurality of residents. Presently available storage systems, containers, and recording methods have often resulted in a patient taking someone else's medication or taking too little or too much medication. Ordinarily, where a care giver or staff member is responsible for the medication regimen of an elderly or handicapped person, that staff member or care giver does not have the time, nor perhaps the capability, of creating a system that will properly control the medication regimens of all the patients for whom they are responsible. Additionally, if the patient is responsible for his or her own medication regimen, that patient is often not capable of complying with proper dosage and proper instructions because of the patient's physical and/or mental limitations.
Another problem associated with any medication regimen, particularly a prolonged one, is the possibility of dangerous interaction complications resulting from multiple medications. Today's drugs may be very effective but, because they are also very potent, they can be toxic if used improperly. Because patients are often under the care of several doctors or because doctors are uniformed or overworked, patients may have drugs prescribed for them which interact adversely with other drugs which they are taking. Additionally, many medications have side effects which are not noticed by the patient because of his or her physical and mental limitations and are not noticed by the caregiver because of lack of time, attention, or knowledge of those side effects.
To monitor and detect possible side effects of medications and possible adverse interaction of multiple medications, any system for controlling the medication regimen of the elderly and the handicapped should lend itself to computer control, whereby certain combinations of medication codes, for example, can be automatically detected and a warning immediately given. Unfortunately, most of the medications presently dispersed to the elderly and handicapped are not dispensed under control and monitoring of a sophisticated computerized system.
In acute care facilities, such as in-patient hospitals and some nursing homes, there are sophisticated drug distribution systems, record keeping systems and drug therapy monitoring. Where the facility receives federal funding, the Federal Government itself mandates pharmacists' review of the drug regimen. However, in home care, where many patients are often using multiple drugs, there are no regulations for drug distribution or control methods to assure that the drugs will be used appropriately. This lack of supervision of medication regimens can result in failure to take medicine properly or to complications resulting from side effects of individual drugs or interaction of concurrently used drugs.
Even in sophisticated nursing homes, a problem is presented when a elderly or handicapped person leaves the nursing home for a visit with family or friends. This "leave of absence" for nursing home patients requires a method of dispensing medication to the absent patient in such a manner that the patient or the temporary caregiver will have sufficient control over the medication regimen while the patient is away from the nursing home.
Similar problems also exist in the medication regimen of young children who, for the greater part of the day, are in the care of teachers or day care staff. These care-givers also have the responsibility of seeing that children receive required medication during the day and, in many instances, such responsibility may be overburdensome, particularly where the child himself is not capable of complying with the proper dosages and proper instructions.
Accordingly, there is a substantial need for a control method and system providing easy and consistent management of medications, particularly those medications presecribed and used by the various types of patients discussed above. Such a control method and system will present dosages of medicint in a manner making it easy for the patient to take proper amounts at the proper time and in compliance with the instructions relating to the medicine, and will also have the capability to monitor and detect in advance any potential interaction between multiple medications given to a patient, as well as any side effects which the patient might encounter, from specified medications.